When Ben Staley walked away from Yarrow in May 2022 — after leaving Alder Room (2017) and North 53 (2013) — he had his sights set on something completely different. He was enrolled in architecture school, ready for a new chapter that didn’t involve being a chef and spending late nights in a restaurant.
But then Isaac Choi, CEO of Hoot Company, reached out and offered Staley a job as creative director. “I said yes because it was pretty much my dream job and what I would have wanted to do after finishing school,” Staley says. “I wanted to pivot to hospitality consultation, to help restaurants with conceptualization, design, staff training, menu development — everything.”
While Staley did revamp the drink menus of Hoot Company’s Dorinku Tokyo and Dorinku Osaka restaurants, his current role is visualizing new ideas and exploring spaces for future projects.
“I visited Ben’s restaurants (Yarrow and Alder Room) and know Ben is a great chef,” Choi says. “We’re both younger people in the hospitality scene and we both want to grow Edmonton’s cocktail scene and do something innovative.
People’s expectations (for going out) are different now and we want to make Edmonton a good place to be for the hospitality industry.”
Staley’s efforts led Hoot Company to take over the space in the lower floor of a heritage building in the Brewery District vacated by Shojo Izakaya in 2023. “At the time, we got the space and didn’t know exactly what we’d do with it,” Staley says. “It wasn’t originally the plan for me to be a partner in it, but Isaac just let me roll with it.”
Even though Staley found his way back to the restaurant world, he didn’t want to return to the kitchen or open something chef-driven, like his previous concepts. Instead, he dreamed up Next of Kin, a cocktail bar of sorts, which he says is a reinvention of what a neighbourhood bar can be.
“We’re not trying to be an experimental cocktail bar that people visit three times a year,” Staley says. “We want to be the kind of place you can come to three times a week.” Staley observes that, in Edmonton, when something is thoughtful and well-crafted, it often gets labelled by audiences as “fancy.”
“We want to eliminate that, because it can be a deterrent for some,” he says. “You should be able to get a great cocktail, but if all you want is a beer and a shot, we’ll do that for you, too.”
Staley designed a 1970s-inspired room with vintage furniture, warm lighting and a hi-fi, straight-from-the-’70s sound system. “We’re not calling ourselves a listening bar, but we wanted the sound to be incredible.”
The drink menu at Next of Kin is streamlined and precise. You can go in and order “a red” or “a lager” because there’s only one choice for each type of wine and beer.
“My internal motto (for the bar) is: less, but better,” Staley says.
Staley says he developed each cocktail with a chef’s mindset, focused on ingredients. “I was messing around one day and made a distillate that tasted like bread,” Staley says. “So we thought, why not do a croissant drink? There’s kind of a food theme to the drink menu.”
Keeping with the accessible neighbourhood bar philosophy, the drink menu also has an “… and Coke” section. “‘Everything is presented in a fun and kind of whimsical way,” Staley says.
The food menu features dishes designed to complement the drinks, not overshadow them. Chef Brett Barger, the former executive sous chef who worked alongside Staley at Yarrow, helms the kitchen. “You can order enough to leave full,” Staley says. “But this isn’t a dinner spot. It’s a bar first.”
While Staley has moved away from the chef’s role, he will work with the kitchen team to develop menus and foster creativity. “My role in the industry has changed,” he says. “Now, it’s about mentoring the next generation.”
To solidify that vision, Next of Kin will host a rotating “chef-in-residence” program. Every few months, a guest chef (from Canada or abroad) will create a feature menu, bringing new cultural backgrounds and culinary approaches to the kitchen (the first guest should start in April). Next of Kin will also foster collaboration in the city’s bar scene, bringing in guest bartenders (local or from elsewhere) for short residencies and pop-ups. “We really want to bring back more collaboration in Edmonton, I think it will be good for the restaurant and bar industry as a whole.”
The opening of Next of Kin marks a sort of return for Staley, but also a new beginning. “Yarrow was deeply personal,” he admits. “I never wanted it to be about me, but it became that. Now, Next of Kin isn’t the Ben Staley project. This is a collective effort. Everything we do is ‘we,’ not ‘I.’ Next of Kin is about community.” Staley hopes that Next of Kin is a reflection of experience, growth and a fresh approach to what hospitality can be. It’s a place where high standards meet comfort, where a great cocktail doesn’t have to be intimidating, and where the next generation of chefs and bartenders can learn and thrive.
This article appears in the April 2025 issue of Edify
